View full sizeHuman Services Commissioner Jennifer Velez, in this 2012 file photo, said she would consider rethinking her proposal to gradually phase out the sheltered workshop program for people with developmental disabilities.Courtesy of the Governor's Office

TRENTON — New Jersey Human Services Commissioner Jennifer Velez told a state budget committee today she would consider dropping her controversial proposal to phase out financial support for sheltered workshops, the vocational program that provides employment for 830 people with developmental disabilities.

At the urging of the state Senate President Stephen Sweeney — the father of a disabled child — Velez said she would investigate transferring the $7 million program to the Department of Labor, which places people with jobs through its Division of Vocational Rehabilitation.

Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), a Senate budget committee member, also raised the idea publicly at the hearing in Trenton. The labor department used to oversee the workshop programs, Weinberg said.

"Of course we would look at it, but the mechanics of how it would work — I don't know," Velez said.

Many families and workshop program operators have panicked over Velez's proposal to end the annual automatic enrollment of students who graduate from school at age 21. Velez has argued the low-skill jobs pay below minimum wage and segregate the workforce — conditions that recently made Oregon the target of a class-action suit by a disability rights organization and the U.S. Department of Justice, Velez said.

Velez also argued that because the federal Medicaid program refuses to subsidize workshops, the $7 million budget is paid entirely by the state. That's a practice New Jersey can no longer afford, Velez said.

If the programs were more geared to competitive employment, Medicaid would share the cost, Velez said. The more federal funding the state can obtain, the faster the New Jersey can whittle down the long waiting list of people with developmental disabilities who are looking for financial help to obtain housing, jobs, enrollment in daily programs, and other services Medicaid is willing to cover, she said.

Weinberg said she thought Velez's worry about Oregon was "an over-stretch." The notion that "all of these people will get into gainful mainstream employment sounds wrong," she added.

Velez stressed no contracts have been severed yet. Family and program operators' objections have "gotten so elevated and concerning" all plans are on hold, she said.

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"The Commissioner's heart is in the right place," Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said after the hearing. "But her focus has been on the waiting list and getting Medicaid funding. It is wrong the sheltered workshop program got caught up in this."

Sweeney said his daughter, Lauren, is 20 — a year away from graduating school. "All she tells me is she wants a job. She's 20 and she wants to work. She wants to work with children," Sweeney said. "But right now, the jobs are not there for the able-bodied. I hope my daughter doesn't have to go to work in sheltered workshop, but if an opportunity isn't available. I don't want her sitting at home on the couch watching TV and playing video games."

Any job provides "a sense of dignity and pride, that they have a place to go to work and contribute to the community," he said.